This unique black and white image shows the
heart of the prototypical starburst galaxy M82. M82 is a
bright (eighth magnitude), nearby (12 million light-years
from Earth) galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major (the
Great Bear). The ongoing violent star formation due to an
ancient encounter with its large galactic neighbor, M81,
gives this galaxy its disturbed appearance. Dusty lanes
show dark along the bright disk while a strong galactic
wind spews knotty filaments of hydrogen gas high above the
disk. The white dots sprinkled along the disk are super
star clusters - very bright, compact groupings of roughly
100,000 stars.